The Wemstroms: Radical Republicans threaten democracy

Monday

Nov 4, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Mitt Romney and his vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, ran, in part, on the promise to repeal Obamacare. They lost. They couldn’t even win Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin or even his hometown of Janesville.

Republicans still do not seem to realize that they lost the election.

When the Affordable Care Act was debated in Congress, Obama made several concessions: for example, he gave up the public health insurance option. In other words, the president did compromise. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress, signed by the president, upheld by the Supreme Court and reaffirmed by the 2012 election. Obamacare is a done deal.

The Republicans do not have a mandate in the House. According to politifact.com, the House GOP won 49 percent of the votes but 54 percent of the seats. An article in the New York Times (Feb. 2) pointed out that there were 1.4 million more votes for Democratic House members than for Republicans. Gerrymandering in several states gave the Republicans more seats.

As many have pointed out, one faction of one party of one house of one branch of the government should not have had the power to shut down the government. This is not democracy.

The Tea Party says Obamacare will be a “train wreck.” If so, the smart thing would have been to let the law be implemented and let it fail. Then they could easily have repealed it. No law would be a train wreck as disastrous as the economic chaos that would have resulted from a U.S. default.

The fact is that the right wing is afraid that Obamacare will be a success. They were willing to shut down the government and bring the U.S. to the brink of default just to try to deprive a president they hate of the signature achievement of his presidency.

John Bambenek, president of a “cybersecurity investigation firm,” recently wrote a column in the J-S declaring Obamacare a “technological catastrophe.” He does not say what health benefits his firm presently provides to employees.

The glitches are, at least in part, testimony to the popularity of the new law, and many new websites have problems. Patty’s brother, who is ill and lives in an assisted-living facility, is retired from The Associated Press. They are now changing his insurance for the third time, unrelated to Obamacare. Since we handle his health care, we have had to deal with glitches on the website, long waits on the phone, several long booklets and complicated decisions.

Counteracting Mr. Bambenek, Bill Keller of the New York Times praises the Affordable Care Act: “You realize those computer failures that have hampered sign-ups in the early days — to the smug delight of the critics — confirm that there is enormous popular demand. You have probably figured out that the real mission of the Republican extortionists and their big-money backers was to scuttle the law before most Americans recognized it as a godsend and rendered it politically untouchable.”

We’re certain the flaws in the website will soon be fixed. If some do not have time to enroll because of problems in the website, the deadline can simply be extended.

President Obama was right not to give in to Tea Party blackmail. But the radical Republicans have “accomplished” some things. They took the spotlight off the environment, immigration and gun control. Our allies now think “American exceptionalism” equals “American insanity.” The party that calls Democrats “tax and spend” has cost the economy $24 billion.

The Tea Party obstructionists haven’t learned a thing. They cast doubt on the very meaning of democracy.

Chuck and Pat Wemstrom live in rural Mount Carroll. They can be reached at patandchuck@gmail.com.